on-the-Mount, although Mr. Leek very much feared it would; but
he announced to that gentleman his intention fully of doing so, and told
him to get the necessary papers drawn up forthwith.

"I hope," he said, "within a few weeks' time to be fairly installed in
that mansion, and then I will trouble you, Mr. Leek, to give me a list
of the names of all the best families in the neighbourhood; for I intend
giving an entertainment on a grand scale in the mansion and grounds."

"Sir," said Mr. Leek, "I shall, with the greatest pleasure, attend upon
you in every possible way in this affair. This is a very excellent
neighbourhood, and you will have no difficulty, I assure you, sir, in
getting together an extremely capital and creditable assemblage of
persons. There could not be a better plan devised for at once
introducing all the people who are worth knowing, to you."

"I thank you," said the baron; "I think the place will suit me well;
and, as the Baroness Stolmuyer of Saltzburgh is dead, I have some idea
of marrying again; and therefore it becomes necessary and desirable that
I should be well acquainted with the surrounding families of distinction
in this neighbourhood."

This was a hint not at all likely to be thrown away upon Mr. Leek, who
was the grand gossip-monger of the place, and he treasured it up in
order to see if he could not make something of it which would be
advantageous to himself.

He knew quite enough of the select and fashionable families in that
neighbourhood, to be fully aware that neither the baron's age nor his
ugliness would be any bar to his forming a matrimonial alliance.

"There is not one of them," he said to himself, "who would not marry the
very devil himself and be called the Countess Lucifer, or any name of
the kind, always provided there was plenty of money: and that the baron
has without doubt, so it is equally without doubt he may pick and choose
where he pleases."

This was quite correct of Mr. Leek, and showed his great knowledge of
human nature; and we entertain with him a candid opinion, that if the
Baron Stolmuyer of Saltzburgh had been ten times as ugly as he was, and
Heaven knows that was needless, he might pick and choose a wife almost
when he pleased.

This is a general rule; and as, of course, to all general rules there
are exceptions, this one cannot be supposed to be free from them. Under
all circumstances, and in all classes of society, there are
single-minded beings who